No sparks from gas cooker ignition

bazwaldo

For a number of years pressing the ignition button on the "Leisure" cooker would create a speak to ignite the gas. Only after being wet did it fail but this would be till it dried and then it would be ok again.

Last year some the ignitors started to fail to spark on some of the hobs. To fix this I pulled the tiny metal pin so make it closer to the metal plate which it sparks off and that worked for a while. But now none of the hobs or the grill spark (the ovens have always sparked fine).

I'll try to explain the ignitor. Under the hob is a wire which is connected to a pin. The pin is surrounded by a piece of white ceramic is the middle section of the pin. So where the pin is connected to the wire is inserted into a hole in the hob and the ceramic stops it falling through. The other end of the pin sticks up about 5mm from the ceramic part and used to spark at its tip and the spark would be from that to the under part of the metal plate on the hob.

As the oven ignitors work I assume the electrics are fine. Unless they powered from a separate unit somehow.

Anyone got any ideas on what I can try to fix this or narrow down the problem? Thanks

Kashkai

In our case, this non ignition is usually caused by a build up of grease, burnt food etc on the underside of the metal disc that sits over the gas feed & ignition coil. Have you tried removing the metal discs and scrubbing them to clean away built up dirt so the spark has clean metal to jump to from the ignitor. Works for me every time.

items

As above, if electrical side of cooker is ok then problems with spark and contact, its not a good idea to move pins if they haven't already been knocked or damage. Spark contact is prob now insulated after years of use, give a good scrubbing with wire wool around metal area opposite spark.

Pop a piece of metal between spark and ring, something like a knife will do, once handle is insulated you wont get a shock, only a tiny shock either way, if spark jumps to knife tip then you have a insulated cooker ring, cleaning should fix.

bazwaldo

Thanks Dave and Items, I'll give that a try tonight. I might even try out the ALDIs imitation Dremel that I bought a few years ago thats still unopened. That should remove any built up grease etc no bother.

ShamFeen

Yeah try cleaning the jgniter itself. Another tip is with a lot of igniters being electric, check the plug if you have one and the fuse in the plugtop or else just use a match or lighter!

bazwaldo

Did a bit of a clean tonight and still no spark. Tried placing a knife between the contact and ring and there was no spark. When I press the ignition button it used to click regardless of when there was a spark and I've noticed shortly after it stopped sparking, it also stopped making that clicking. So maybe the button unit is not doing what it should. As the oven spark is fine, the fuse in the plug must be ok. Should I try remove some of the hob casing to see whats behind the button. Would a live wire feed into the button and then also have an output to the hob contacts? And the button when pressed lets the live go to the contacts at about one second intervals.

Maybe I could test the cable(s) at the button when pressed and when not.

Kashkai

This sounds like the ignition wiring is faulty somewhere, most likely at the ignition button. However I'd caution trying a diy job on this if you're not an electrician. Is the cooker still under warranty?

bazwaldo

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

Is the cooker still under warranty?

Nah, its 8 years old. I might take a look if its easily accessible but won't take any chances by doing anything dodgy. Theres an electrician in the family who is always "too busy" for these type of jobs but I'll give him a buzz if I get the cover off.

I wouldnt pay much to get this fixed as its just a minor annoyance. But if its anyway doable by myself, I'll give it try.

bazwaldo

Ordered a replacement ignition button back in January and went to replace it last night (I've been busy ) Wasn't too bad to get access to it and replace it, but unfortunately it still does nothing when pressed. It took ages to get the cooker back together as there are screws every which way and was easy to miss one. Either way back to square one and after wasting a couple of hours .

I think I might call the brother to see if he'd know how I can test the cabling. It did look fine to me so there may be something wrong deeper inside the cooker where I didn't get access to as I did not take the back off. I'd like to see one of those circuit charts to see how its all connected but I doubt something like that is available online. I don't fancy spending €100 on getting someone to fix it so some more attempts need to be made. Any suggestions welcome.

ShamFeen

If you have done this long without it, do you really need it??? Can you use a match??